Jolla smartphones priced at $510 to hit India by end 2013

Jolla will ship its smartphones — priced at $510 — by the end of 2013.

The new dual core Jolla smartphone runs on the MeeGo-based Sailfish operating system and will also be compatible with Google’s Android applications in a clear break from Nokia.

The phone features a 4.5-inch display and 8 MP camera. It will also be 4G-capable, depending on market. The Jolla with 16GB storage + microSD will go on sale in the fourth quarter.

The new smartphone will have a user-replaceable battery.

It is planning to focus on the Asian market, as a rapid growth in the region’s middle class is fuelling demand for smartphones.

Jolla smartphones are developed by a group of ex-Nokia software developers.

Jolla was founded by Nokia’s former MeeGo software team that was shut down after the company decided to switch to Microsoft’s Windows Phone software in 2011.

With 70 employees and $14.11 million in venture financing, Jolla joins a handful of boutique operating systems such as Ubuntu which together have less than a one-percent presence in the mobile phone market, Reuters said.

Jolla chairman Antti Saarnio said the Jolla’s openness in allowing users to download Android apps would differentiate it from others.